Well, the X can also alter the form of the creature they controlled and use its powers. I mean, if an X absorbs a beam, it takes a form that can shoot beams (like an Eye Core-X). Metroids can't change their form, so when a Metroid absorbs, say, the Hyper Beam, it can't really shoot the beam out of its body. That just wouldn't make any sense.

It certainly would be interesting, and I would play a game like that, but I just can't see how it would work. But I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo pulled something like that (if they ever make a sequel to Fusion).

I've actually picked MoM back up and played through it a couple of times. My list of gripes is the same, and I still think all the crappy decisions are still crappy, but I've enjoyed the game a little bit more now that the shock has worn off. It's kinda how shit stinks real bad when it's fresh, but over time it dries up a little. It's still nasty, but not so stinky.

I, too, have begun another playthrough. It really isn't as bad as I thought. I'm still dreading the Ridley scene. Even though it may be justifiable psychologically (maybe), I will never regard it as a good idea.

I actually liked the plot, and thought the Ridley scene was one of the best parts of it. When I think about it, I understand what everyone complains about, but when I'm playing, I can't convince myself it's bad.

When I think about the scene, I can fool myself into believing that it maybe isn't such a bad thing (admittedly, this usually happens late at night when I'm tired). But when I play the game, the scene breaks my suspension of disbelief. Every. Time.

In the same series where glorified jellyfish are the Ultimate Warriors and doors are opened with high-power energy particles, that's saying something.

Well it took them a while to get around to letting us know how those things really worked. Especially the beam doors, as explained (to my satisfaction anyway) in the Prime games. I mean, they do a job of explaining that because the physics of the world work in such and such a way, objects in there correspondingly work in such and such a way. In time we'll probably have a satisfactory explanation for it. Back in the day they didn't need to justify why games had certain things, but increasingly developers work in some sort of reasoning, and Nintendo's obviously pretty far behind in that area as far as psychology goes.

The Ridley scene is so badly done and setup. I can't believe he didn't think about Samus' well-being towards the player when that scene popped up. There are places in the story that just seem intentionally written to make Samus look bad. The Research Lab, the Hell Run, the Ridley Scene, the Sector Zero scene, etc. All of these scenes are written in such a way that make Samus look dumb, incapable of independent thought, scared and whiny.

I can play Other M for the gameplay, but the story man...the story...woof.

I've never thought too much about Samus' personality before Other M, so while some players hate what they did with her, I didn't think too much about it. As far as I'm concerned, Samus had no personality in the other games, and Other M just contradicted what people assumed she was like. The Ridley scene made sense to me, considering how they set Samus up as a character in this game. Even if I think about it the way you guys describe, it hardly seems like the worst part of the plot.

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All of these scenes are written in such a way that make Samus look dumb, incapable of independent thought, scared and whiny.

I'm not quite sure how they do this. The Ridley scene I understand, but how do the other scenes make her seem scared or whiny? Looking back, she does seem, at times, like she isn't thinking, but she never came across to me as scared or whiny.

Using his examples:Research Lab:"The data shows they're researching Bio-Weapons.""ADAM! Is the Federation researching Bio Weapons?!"Hell Run:*walks in*"Ow. This environmental Heat damage hurts. But Adam hasn't told me to turn it on. And I just... ooh... get the shivers when he tells me to do something."Sector Zero:"Metroids that can't be killed?! I MUST GO KILL THEM!"

I over all liked the game. It all made sense to me as well. But just because it makes sense doesn't mean it was a retarded move.

I don't recall the Research Lab cut-scene too well, so I can't really comment on it.As for the Hell's Run, I think Samus just wasn't thinking during that segment. Can't say much else.And Sector Zero: I think that she took the logical course of action. I mean, something has to kill those Metroids. She just didn't know what.

Eh, with examples, maybe Samus is a little dumb/empty-minded. But never whiny or scared.

As someone has pointed out me, it's how the Japanese culture works. Respect your elders and whatnot. Still, it's REALLY stupid to not come up with some better writing to hide it. The Sector Zero scene made sense to me in that she wouldn't take no for an answer. As for the Research Lab, I have absolutely no idea. You'd think the Chozo of all creatures would raise a smarter warrior.

From a story perspective, freezing the Metroid isn't that unbelievable. No matter how badly worded it was, it was still a (somewhat) plausible explanation. As a matter of fact, maybe it was just a Metroid that the Queen released.

Still, I think that scene would have been better if they at least showed us an unfreezable Metroid from Sector 0. Even if they just showed one behind glass in a frozen room or something, just to prove they exist. That could have gone better.

I honestly believe that MB is going to return. There's no way I can't see that happening. There's also no way I see them not retconning the end of Fusion so when Samus absorbs the SA-X that her original Power Suit returns.

I've actually picked MoM back up and played through it a couple of times. My list of gripes is the same, and I still think all the crappy decisions are still crappy, but I've enjoyed the game a little bit more now that the shock has worn off.

I figure that that's pretty much the trick to this game, it went to great lengths to look like a Metroid game and wanted to be the definitive Metroid game, but if you didn't buy into that initially your odds were better simply because you weren't going to be disappointed in that sense. And for those that did have high expectations from the game, once you get past its failure to be what you were promised it would be or just what you wanted it to be, you can find a pretty decent action game under the madness.

I wouldn't put other M in the Metroid Fusion category of "Great game that probably shouldn't be called Metroid", but more in the "Pretty good game that vaguely resembles Fusion".

It's actually kinda funny how the Metroid games that try to fall into Fusion's mold are all actually worse than Fusion. Metroid 4 was some sort of happy accident.